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Leanne Wood AM (Plaid, Rhondda) has called for the A&E department at Llantrisant’s Royal Glamorgan Hospital to become a research centre.
It comes after plans for a downgrade, announced recently, prompted protests outside Cwm Taf Morgannwg’s headquarters in Abercynon last week.
The AM said: “Creating a centre of excellence – an academic institution tailored to the latest innovation in emergency medicine would be a major positive step we could take to ensure the hospital attracts and retains medical expertise.”
The health board’s medical director, Dr Nick Lyons, said: “Is it right for us to pretend that everything is going to be okay, but continue to provide a service that has real safety concerns about it going forward? That is not the right thing to do….all three (A&E) departments are short-staffed. We should have between 35 and 45 consultants and we actually have across the whole health board just over 12. “
